Loads and loads of Nooze for you today, to make up for our overly long silence.
First, from Becky Kessler writing for Yale Environment 360, what she calls "a very oozy story indeed about mercury's effect on wildlife, on the eve of the first global treaty to curb mercury emissions:"

This month, delegates from over 140 countries gathered in Geneva and finalized the first international treaty to reduce emissions of mercury. The treaty — four years in the works and scheduled for signing in October — aims to protect human health from this very serious neurotoxin.

But barely considered during the long deliberations, according to those involved in the treaty process, was the harm that mercury inflicts on wildlife. While mercury doesn’t kill many animals outright, it can put a deep dent in reproduction, says David Evers, chief scientist at the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), who serves on a scientific committee informing the process. “It is a bit of a silent threat, where you have to kind of add up what was lost through studies and demographic models.”... Read more.

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Next, from Susan Bence with WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio, a story about a man chronicling melt, and the hopes that his efforts will convince naysayers:

He works at a clinic in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California border. He tells me and 22 other visiting college students what happened to local farmers one season, when the federal government shut off their irrigation water to protect endangered fish during a drought. He is counting divorces, cases of depression, heart attacks. He is counting suicides. "Fish are as important as people," he says. "Fish are not more important than people."... Read more.

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And from Sam Eaton, also with PRI's The World, a look at a rapidly warming Antarctic and its potential impacts:

In fact, says Andrew Monaghan, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, West Antarctica is warming about twice as fast as what we had thought, and three times the global average...Read and see more.